Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
“Um, uh…a, uh…” I shook my head. What was the question? “What?”
A deep chuckle from his chest made every pleasure point on my body sizzle.
“You seem distracted.”
Distracted. Yes. I was that.
I nodded.
His big, strong hands went to his tool belt and began to unbuckle it. Was this what porn was like for men? I’d tried watching with Crosby because he wanted me to and I didn’t get into it. Those girls were so fake. The way they grimaced when the men shot their load on their mouths. But this…this felt like what porn should be.
He stepped closer and laid the belt on the counter behind me. “There. It’s gone. Do I get your attention now?” he asked.
I blinked, confused. “What?”
He laughed again. “You were staring at the tool belt. I removed it.”
I shook my head. “Not what I was staring at.”
“What was it then?”
I pointed at his chest and slowly lowered my fingernail all the way down his body, stopping at his crotch.
“My clothes?”
“Mmm,” I said, tilting my head to the left. “More like what’s under them. It’s, um…you’re just normally in slacks or jeans that don’t fit like this and shirts with white collars.”
“So, me in regular clothes is that distracting?” he said.
I blew out a breath and forced myself to stop staring at the hidden six-pack I wanted to reach out and touch. Jerk up the T-shirt and get my fill. “Yes. No. Yes,” I replied. “It’s more the body the clothes are on that is distracting.”
His eyes heated instantly, and the hope that perhaps I would get him to show me his abs sprang up.
“Here I am, being a gentleman and not focusing on the fact that you have on a short little sundress,” he drawled, the Texas coming out thick. “And those high-heeled sandals are real sexy, Dimples, but you can’t exactly get much work done, dressed like that.”
I motioned toward my bag. “I brought other clothes. I just haven’t changed,” I explained. I’d gotten here and been so excited about seeing him that I forgot to put on my work clothes.
Thick lashes fanned down as he dropped his gaze, scanning my body. He was close enough to touch me, but he didn’t. “You can change now. I’ll wait.” The huskiness in his voice told me he didn’t mean that he was gonna turn around or close his eyes.
“Okay,” I replied. “I should move away from the windows.”
At the mention of windows, his eyes snapped back up to my face, and his hungry gaze abated. “The windows,” he said.
I nodded.
He licked his lips and stepped back away from me. “Yeah, the windows. That’s why I came to see you.”
Shit. Please don’t say what I think you might.
Jude walked over toward them, and my eyes followed him.
“I was outside this morning, helping the folks at Vapiano clean up. And the manager said that, with his windows all shattered and his roof peeled back like it was, the insurance adjuster had told him that he had the worst damage along the tornado’s path. That it appeared it was closest to the ground right out there.”
I didn’t want to be told how close the twister had been to us. That would fuel nightmares.
Jude ran his finger along the edges of the windows, and I winced.
“Then, he said how he’d mentioned that the windows here were all fine. Not even a crack. How was it that with all that force and winds, it didn’t take out our windows? I mean, at least take out one. We lost three at the church, one at the rectory, and the roof is pretty much gone at the rec hall. It made me wonder how this building had been so lucky.”
He turned to look at me while he continued to run his finger along the nonexistent line where a tinted film coating would be. I had no lie for this. When I had agreed to those stupid windows, I hadn’t considered a tornado would rip through the street, exposing my lie.
When I said nothing, he put his hands in the front pockets of his jeans as he faced me. “Their adjuster told him we had bulletproof windows. He was surprised they could withstand the things that must have hit them. The winds. Apparently, it would take windows that were bombproof to withstand that much force.”
Bombproof? Really, Gathe?
“I decided to come look closer at our bombproof windows and noticed there’s no film from tinting. No, this tinting is inside. Made that way.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling the need to defend myself. He’d caught me. I had lied. It had saved us. We had no damage.
“Fine. I lied. For my father to allow me to spend so much time here, it had to be safe. I argued and lost. The windows were put in at night so no one would see. I was embarrassed and didn’t want you to know.”